Forza Motorsport 3 Review - Xbox 360

Game Description: The Xbox 360's landmark simulation racing franchise returns with the third installment, bringing with it over 400 cars, around 100 tracks, and industry leading physics. Turn 10 has increased the polygon counts on all cars and tracks and has finally added the much needed cockpit camera to the game.

Forza Motorsport 3 Review

Forza Motorsport 3 improves upon Forza 2 in almost every way. It doesn't redefine the genre, but it adds enough to be a solid upgrade for car lovers and simulation enthusiasts. New features like Rewind and Quick Upgrade help lower the barrier of entry for casual players and the new cockpit cam is a much-needed franchise addition.

The Pros

Cars And Tracks Look Great At 60fps

Rewind Feature Removes "Restart Race" Fever

Quick Upgrade Helps Casual Players Improve Cars

Top Notch Customization And Multiplayer Features

The Cons

Full Experience Requires Hard Drive

AI Still Races Perfect Line

Turn 10 Studios returns with Forza Motorsport 3, a new installment in its Xbox 360 exclusive simulation racing franchise bringing some new features for casual players, over 400 high-poly cars, 100 track variations, and the “Season Play” mode, which guides the player’s career based on the cars they purchase and acquire.

Sure, a lot of the tracks return from Forza Motorsport 2, but that’s to be expected with a game that prides itself on recreating real world locations. The new locations are gorgeous and offer some new scenery, away from boring racetracks and into the mountains or oceanside, cobblestone streets. The graphics upgrade on the tracks and cars is instantly noticeable for those coming from Forza 2.

Every car is available for purchase from the start of the game, provided that you have the cash. Well, provided you also install the game’s remaining content from the second disc. For those Xbox 360 Arcade owners out there without a hard drive, be warned: you will not be getting the full Forza 3 experience. You’ll miss out on a lot of the game’s top-end racing cars and a few tracks including the 5 tracks of the Nurburgring. You should really buy a hard drive, though.

So Is This Just A Roster Update?

Like its predecessors, Forza Motorsport 3 is a sim-heavy game that anyone with a deep interest in cars or racing should give a chance. Although the attention to detail might bore casuals, Turn 10 has included a lot of assists to aid novice players including auto-braking, a rewind feature, and a quick upgrade option. Auto-braking does exactly what it sounds like: the game will automatically apply the brakes according to the driving line. With it on, you can just hold the gas and steer. The game will do the rest. Experienced players will want to turn this feature off instantly.

The biggest change to the game is the new rewind feature, which allows you to rewind to a previous point in the race and continue from there. It’s always available and has unlimited use in offline races. The feature completely eliminates the need to restart if you make a mistake. After a while, it begins to feel like cheating and does not impact the amount of money or experience you’ll receive for completing the race, but beats a punishing tradition of racing games. If there’s any drawback, it’s that there’s no real penalty for abusing the feature, but you’ve always got the option of racing on your own merits.

Quick Upgrade is a new option that lets the computer do the heavy lifting when it comes to car tuning. It’s an excellent way for players to kit out a car for each event in a matter of seconds instead sweating the small stuff. But all of those detailed options remain for players that want to perfect their tuning setups. It can even downgrade a car to optimize it for a lower class event. The quick upgrade system isn’t perfect and won’t completely optimize a car for you, but it will give you a competitive, drivable vehicle. Advanced users will still be able to get more out of their ride with manual tuning.

Forza 3’s career mode takes place over several seasons in which the player competes in different events based upon their car collection. Before choosing an event series to compete in, the player is presented with three options: one that will take place on new tracks, one for their current car, and one for a different car. Every few weeks on the in-game calendar, there is a weekend race in a car class championship series. Completing these events brings you to the next season. You won’t be able to complete every single event in season play, but you can attempt any series at any time from the event list, which shows all of the events and breaks them down by your eligibility.

Turn 10 has also added two leveling systems: driver level and a level for each individual car. Driver level goes from 1 to 50 and will determine available events in season play. Each level up also comes with a shiny new car as a reward, which increase in class and performance as you go. Car levels yield discounts on upgrade parts and sponsorships. It’s a welcome addition, but the system isn’t as robust as the one in Need for Speed: Shift. Free cars are nice, though.

Interestingly, Forza 3 includes a few stock cars for a NASCAR-like experience, but without the license. Those rights went to Gran Turismo 5, but the cars in Forza 3 handle extremely well and serve as what NASCAR in Forza could have been. We’ll have to see where the license ends up for the next round.

Robot Drivers Drive Perfectly

Unfortunately, the AI drivers in Forza 3 still tend to drive perfect lines around the track and their positioning comes down to the performance ratings of their cars. The AI rarely makes mistakes, and you’ll usually be at the root of collisions. It also means that passing an AI racer in an evenly matched car will almost always involve a bit of contact. Again, your personal feelings on dirty passes may differ from mine, but I prefer clean overtakes.

The AI just feels a bit sterile compared to the rest of the game. It would be nice if the computer drivers were fallible, making mistakes without direct player interaction, but thankfully the game remains incredibly challenging when you start removing assists. Of all of the components of the game, the AI hasn’t quite made the leap from Forza 2’s level to match the rest of Forza 3’s improvements.
Take Your Skills Online As Everyone Picks The Same Car

Thankfully, there’s a robust multiplayer component that can be customized, almost like Halo 3, to create unique gametypes and events for eight players at a time in addition to standard races. One of the included custom gametypes created by Turn 10 is “Cat and Mouse” which pits teams of drivers against each other in a chase-based event. The players serving as “mice,” typically driving lower-end cars, race to see which of them can cross the finish line first. The other players, serving as “cats” in higher-end cars, attempt to impede the progress of the opposing team’s mouse by ramming into him, spinning him out, or blocking him. The team that gets their mouse to the end first wins the event.

On the traditional end, there are regular race events and tons of options for scoring and determining the winner. There’s even an option that scores players based on how cleanly they conduct themselves on the track. Hit someone with “Keep it Clean” scoring on and you’ll rack up points. Like golf, more is worse and the player with the least amount of points will win the race.

Forza 3’s online offering truly shines as a playground with seven other players exploring the game’s modes and tracks. Lobby creators are given more options for customization and restriction than ever before to truly enable a different experience for each race.

A Community Of Car Lovers

Forza Motorsport 2 set the standard for car customization with its robust car painting and stamping tools along with an auction house for creators to sell their work to the masses. Forza 3 brings all of that back and adds the ability to sell tuning setups instead of entire cars along with custom stamps or vinyls rather than fully decorated cars.

The game also adds a movie-making feature to the replay theater, which can upload HD or SD videos to ForzaMotorsport.net for sharing. Unfortunately, the tool can only record a set amount of seconds from a starting point with one camera. There’s no keyframing or camera switching. You can create some amazing looking sequences, but it doesn’t match the offering in games like Skate 2 or FIFA for creating movies of your exploits. It’s a good start, but it doesn’t live up to the rest of the game.

More Cars Than Pixar

If you are a car lover or sim fan, you owe it to yourself to go out and get Forza Motorsport 3. The entire package drips with polish and the physics-based gameplay is solid across all game modes. This title transcends a pure gaming experience to become something of a virtual driving tool. Forza 3 is a deep simulation experience and it’s the best racer available on any platform right now.

Comments are Closed

I was impressed with the game itself, but found the on-line game play sorely lacking. Its way to glitchy, not smooth like in game play. The other cars jump and bounce all over the place. I was right on someone's tail getting pass once and they're car disappeared and reappeared about five hundred feet in front of me. Another time while racing, the car in front of me suddenly shot into the air about 50 feet, then when it came down was sunk into the road, so all I saw was windows and roof. Also, I had been on live for two days but yet I would enter a session and immediately start getting kick votes. What's up with that guys? I have been racing since before most of you were born, so give a person a chance will ya. Why don't ya'll buy GRID, then come race me!!

As much as I like this game as a racing sim, I find that the on-line racing is just too glitchy. I was racing recently, I'm right on someone's tail getting ready to pass, suddenly his car turns invisible, and re-appears about 500 ft. in front of me. Also, I had only been on XBox live for 2 days, I would enter an event, and immediately start getting kick votes, these guys don't even know me, what's up with that. I've been racing for a long time folks. I probably graduated from high school before most of these guys were born, give me a chance will ya. Why don't you people who were kicking me buy Grid, then give racing me a shot, huh!! Guarantee I give you a run for your money.

I haven't played many simulation racing games, mario kart ftw, but I absolutely love this game. There are so many little details which make this game very impressive. Not only does it play well it looks great. Just a few I would like to see in the next game though: First, I would like to be able to have an option which lets you set how closely the AI follows the recommended path. Such as you can set them to follow it as best they can or take advantage of any opportunities they can find. Next, I enjoy the replay option however I think that you should be able to change an option which disables the replay button but gives you a small credit bonus. Or maybe you get a small credit penalty whenever you use it. I have many more very minor suggestions but I really don't want to write a massive wall of text. lol

Overall I think the game is great, there are many little details but there are also many little problems 4/5 imo

@SilencedThats easy! because GT5 is not out yet!! and they're hatin on us Xbox360 owners because we got a great racing sim!...Oh wait they also believe that great games ONLY comes out on $ony's consoles and orther consoles (Xbox360) don't have great games or ONLY have rip-offs of great games!

So funny game, you never know how it works in some special ways, just get some new ideas about it on __-__i n t e r r a c i a l s e a r c h i n g DOT c o m-..__ ___ where more hot games are shown there!

I'm an avid fan of Forza Motorsport 2. I own the game, and love the amount of customization you can do, especially on the body, decals and such. I firmly believe that Forza Motorsport 3 will be the best racing game of the year, if not all time. The rewind feature will allow Turn 10 to include longer races, and make those long races less tedious. I remember playing the Endurance Races, and getting angered at one small error costing you the whole race, and a mound of damage to your car. I can only expect to customization of cars to become even better, and with the increased collection of cars available, this may very well be the best racing game out on the Xbox 360 to date. Finally, with the in-car camera, we will be able to get an even more realistic, if that is even possible, feel from Forza Motorsport.

As much hatred from the PS3 Fanboys who have been going around in this review I expect to get, I'm not at all excited for GT5. It seems like an over-hyped game, and I can't grasp how they got NASCAR's license over Forza 3.

You do realize that PD have gone back to the drawing board after seeing and playing Forza 3 right???

This will result in a better game, but it also means that something in Forza 3 made them realize they needed to delay their game for some time.

WHAT ARE YOU GUYS GOING TO SAY WHEN THE "REWIND FEATURE" IS IN GRAN TURISMO 5????

You'll all look like an idiot then....because this "sim breaking" EXTRA FEATURE is there. Get over yourselves, please! It makes me want to drop my love for console sims and just go back to PC only. Heck we STILL DON'T have damage in Gran Turismo. WE WILL have some when 5 hits, but anyone that says this "rewind feature" (something I will certainly turn off) is a detractor, needs to remember the fact that up to this point...none of my GT games have HALF the features this Forza 3 game does.

I'm not really in to the simulation style of racing, because I'm used to the arcade style but the create a skin mode is has me sold on this game. Since I'm a art student I'm going to have so much fun creating stuff.